Unlocking the Mysteries of Vocal Function

1. Chapter 6Resonance & Voice Perry C. Hanavan, Au.D.

2. Cultures The Jimi Hendrix of Mongolia Incredible Human Machine Steven Tyler Wall of Sound Naturally 7 Dr. Patricia Kuhl: Linguist Genius of Babies

3. Question What is meant by phonation? • Whispered speech sound • Voiced speech sound • Produce a nasal sound • Use your lips to produce sound • I don’t know

4. Practice Labeling

5. Review

6. Question Which non-speech function is helpful for lifting or pushing heavy objects? • Coughing • Abdominal fixation • Throat clearing • Swallowing reflex • All the above

7. Larynx: Non-Speech Functions • Coughing • Abdominal fixation • Throat clearing • Swallowing reflex

8. The Cough

9. The Cough • Can voluntarily cough • Reflex triggered when irritant stimulates one or more cough receptors • Receptors transmit message to cough center in brain, telling body to cough • Cough begins with deep inhalation, at which point opening between vocal cords at upper part of larynx (glottis) shuts, trapping air in lungs • As diaphragm and other muscles press against lungs, vocal folds suddenly abduct, producing explosive outflow of air at speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour

10. Nonspeech Laryngeal Function Cough Reflex • Visceral afferent branch of Vagus Nerve • Response to irritant of tissue of respiratory passageway to irritant or foreign object • Widely abducted vocal folds followed by tight adduction of vocal folds and elevation of larynx • Smokers less sensitive to cough-inducing irritants (which may have important medical implications) • Reflex cough test reliably evaluated the laryngeal cough reflex and the associated risk of developing aspiration pneumonia in stroke patients. • Testing the laryngeal cough reflex may significantly reduce morbidity, mortality, and costs in stroke patients. (Addington et al 1999)

11. Clearing Throat

12. Swallowing Reflex • Bolus of food triggers reflex as it passes tongue above larynx • Larynx elevates • Epiglottis drops down to cover aditus (opening to larynx from pharynx) • Tight adduction of folds

13. Vocal Fold Functions

14. Laryngeal Function for Speech • Attack • Simultaneous • Breathy • Glottal • Termination • Sustained phonation • Vocal register • Whispering

15. Laryngeal Function for Speech • Attack - process of bringing folds together for phonation, requires muscles (three types): • Simultaneous - adduction and onset of exhalation occurs together • Breathy - airflow begins before phonation “hope”, Breathy phonation - failure to completely close folds • Glottal- used when word begins with stressed vowel, normal process (Hard glottal attack – damaging) • Termination - process of fold retraction (abduction) • Sustained phonation - requires maintenance of tonic (sustained tensing) of musculature (actual phonation does not require repeated adduction and abduction)

16. Speech Function

17. Vocal Folds • Phonation • Phonation • Fundamental • Harmonics • Habitual pitch • Optimal pitch • Average fundamental frequency

18. Question Register or pattern of phonation used in daily conversations: • Falsetto • Whistle • Modal • Vocal fry • Whisper

19. Vocal Register • Vocal register - differences in mode of vibration of vocal folds • Modal register - pattern of phonation used in daily conversations • Glottal fry- (rough voice) vibrating portion flaccid, lateral portion tensed resulting in strong medial compression with short, thick folds and low glottal pressure • Falsetto - long and extremely thin folds • Whistle register- turbulence on edge of vocal folds • Whispering - not actually phonatory because no voicing partially adducted and tensed to produce turbulence, strenuous and fatiguing

20. Modal Register • Modal register or modal phonation refers to the pattern of phonation used in daily conversation • Example

21. Vocal Fry

22. Glottal Fry • Also known as pulse register or Strohbass (straw bass) • Vocal folds vibrate between 30 and 90 Hz • Frying pan sound of eggs frying • Low subglottal pressure • Tension of the vocalis is significantly reduced relative to modal vibration, so that the vibrating margin is flaccid and thick. The lateral portion of folds is tensed creating thick folds • Example

23. Glottal Fry Vocal Fry

24. Falsetto • A singing technique that produces sounds that are pitched higher than the singer's normal range • Vocal folds lengthened and become extremely thin • expansion and separation of vocal cords, in which case, only the edges of the vocal cord vibrate, not the entire vocal cord • used by male countertenors to sing in the alto range, before women sang in choirs. • It is a very common technique in soul music, and has also been made popular in heavy metal • How to sing falsetto • Falsetto Voice Phrases

25. Whistle Register • Register above falsetto • (flageolet register) is the highest register of the human voice • Up to 2500 Hz in females • Product of turbulence on the edge of the vocal fold • Not considered a mode of vibration as product of turbulence • Mariah Carey • Mariah Carey

26. Whispering • Not a phonatory mode • Voicing removed • Mariah Carey

27. Question Maintaining childhood pitch despite having passed through puberty… • Aphonia • Puberphonia • Phonia fear • Non-phonia

28. Puberphonia • Maintenance of the childhood pitch despite having passed through puberty • Puberphonia • Other voice disorders

29. Gender & Age

30. Vocal Length Change with Age

31. Fundamental Frequency & Age

32. Vocal Intensity vs. Vocal Fold Vibration

33. 2 Vocal Fold Intensities

34. Prosodic Feature of Question Form

35. Laryngeal Stridor

36. Voice Disorders • Voice Doctor • Voice Disorders • Voice Doctor • Voice Disorders • Functional Voice Disorder • Disorders of the Larynx • Cancer of the Larynx

37. Vocal Cords • Phonation • Vocal cords (variables) • Length • Mass (thickness) • Tension • Normal Vocal Cord Images/Videos

38. Question Who has the longer vocal folds? • Men • Women • Young boys • Young girls • Cats

39. Question Whose pitch rises as they age? • Men • Women • Young boys • Young girls • Cats

40. Question When does the most dramatic change in phonation occur? • Childhood • Pubescence • Adulthood • Elderly • Infancy

41. VC Fundamental Frequency • Fo (fundamental of vocal fold vibrations) • Vocal folds/chords generate a fundamental and harmonics • Fundamental is not audible due to vocal tract resonance • Although Fo not audible, the listener perceives the audible harmonics as the Fo (perceptually as pitch) • SFF = speaking fundamental frequency • Average Fo of an individual during normal conversation or during oral reading

42. VC Fundamental Frequency • SFF variations: • Age • Gender • Emotions • Sentence type • Disease • Medications

43. SFF and Age • Infants 350-500 Hz • Children 270-300 Hz • Pubescence 120 Hz - males; 220 Hz - females • Seniors 162 Hz - males; 177 Hz - females

44. Gender • Pubescence • More dramatic change in males than females SFF • Seniors • SFF increases in males • SFF decreases in females

45. Adult Gender Differences • Male vocal folds: 17 mm and 25 mm (0.67" to 1.0") in length. • Female vocal folds: 12.5 mm and 17.5 mm (0.5" to 0.7") in length.

46. Frequency Variables • Stress and accent of sounds in speech • Prosody features of speech • Measured by: • FoSD • Normal conversation 20-35 Hz • Varies by age, gender, emotions • Semitones=pitch sigma (2-4 semitones) • Range – difference between highest and lowest Fo in sample of speech

47. Question Whose voice has the greatest frequency variation? • Infants • Children • Adolescents • Adults • Seniors

48. Range of Freq. Variability • Infants greatest range -1202 Hz • Children 150-190 Hz • Adolescents 64-95 Hz • Seniors 78-101 Hz

49. Question What can influence our voice intensity? • Prosody of speech • Emotions • Social situations • Health • All the above

50. Amplitude • Normal 65-85 dB SPL • Prosody of speech • Emotions • Social situations • Health